My shohin azalea was long overdue for repotting. I’d wanted to change the angle of the tree for some time as the main branch was too large to bend and the exposed roots were pointing almost straight up. Tipping the tree would approximate bending the main branch down and it would give the trunk better […]
Shohin
Where should the apex go?
Some years back I dramatically shortened the trunk on the black pine below to create a small sized bonsai. Shohin black pine I regrew the apex from a branch that pointed forward. As a result, the apex wasn’t centered close to the base of the trunk. I figured this was fine as I’ve seen a […]
Decandling shohin black pine
Decandling Japanese black pines is the process of removing spring growth to produce summer growth. If we decandle early in the season, we give summer growth more time to mature and produce long needles. The converse is also true – decandling later produces shorter needles. For this reason, we typically decandle shohin pine bonsai about […]
Refining shohin black pine
Typical fall work for Japanese black pine: remove old wire, remove unnecessary branches and needles, wire remaining branches. This simple process can reveal a lot about a tree. I’d been thinking the shohin black pine below had the basics in place – good primary and secondary branches that could be quickly developed into an attractive […]
California Shohin Seminar
It’s hard to create a good shohin display. With larger trees, we work to find trees, pots, stands, and accents that work well together. With shohin, the same is true but the number of trees can jump to 6 or more. When done well, shohin displays create truly unique experiences. Here are more photos from […]